Forever Orphans
by Eyesatrac135
Summary: Seto and Mokuba talk to the newest girl at the orphanage while they wait for Gozaboro Kaiba to arrive and sign the adoption papers. But...where is Gozaboro? And...who is the girl? (Note: AU! Takes place BEFORE Seto and Mokuba are adopted by Gozaboro Kaiba, and after Book #2: The Reptile Room of A Series of Unfortunate Events but before book #3: The Wide Window) KaibaxViolet
1. An Unfortunate Event

"Wow, I can't believe you beat me again," the tall boy said to his younger, smaller brother.

"Thanks," the younger, smaller brother responded. "But I know you're just letting me win."

"I am not. You're just that good."

"Do you really think so?"

"I know so."

The tall boy collected his cards and began to neatly organize his deck. He had a thing about organization, especially in the messy, unorganized cafeteria. Once he made sure all of the cards were facing the right way and weren't upside down, he shuffled them in a particular manner as he watched his brother anxiously look up at the clock while he did the same.

"So, we're gonna play again, Seto?"

"Sure, Mokuba."

"I guess it's a good way to kill time," Mokuba said. "How much longer do you think til he gets here?"

"I don't know," Seto responded. "Mrs. Yamashita said he should have been here by noon, but it's already 1."

"It's almost 2, Seto."

"Yeah, I know."

"Do you think he...changed his mind...?"

"Oh, Moki..."

"Because of-"

"Don't say it, Moki. Don't say it."

"But-"

"He didn't. You're perfect."

Seto put his cards down on the table and grabbed little Moki's little hand. He saw his brother bite his bottom lip and close his eyes, which is what he always did when he wanted to cry but didn't want the other kids to see him. The other kids often bothered him...

It may not have seemed like a big deal to someone else, but Seto understood Mokuba's thought process. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time a husband and wife had come to the orphanage in hopes of adopting a child. And, sadly, it wouldn't have been the first time a mother and father had almost adopted Seto but had changed their mind when they realized Mokuba came in the package, too. Although Seto tried to hide the unkind truth from little Moki, his brother wasn't stupid. He knew why those adults - their potential future parents - had opted out and gone with other children instead.

Mokuba opened his eyes and saw some of the bigger kids, who were sitting a few tables away from him and Seto, mockingly pretend to cry as their friends laughed and pointed at him. They were imitating the way he had cried at the playground once when he had fallen off the swing a few years ago.

Mokuba let go of Seto and picked up his cards again, discretely flipping the bullies off as he did so.

_"Idiots,"_ he whispered under his breath, soft enough so Seto wouldn't hear. Seto had heard him though, and had seen Mokuba give them the finger too, but he pretended not to so his little brother wouldn't feel embarrassed.

Mokuba looked around the orphanage cafeteria and saw the faces of smiling and depressed children around his and his brother's age. Some were having lunch, some were playing cards. He wanted to be part of the smiling crowd who was playing cards, not the depressed-looking ones who were miserably eating lunch. Finally, he settled for something somewhat in the middle. Mokuba's eyes attempted to display the indifferent stare of someone who wasn't going to let a longing for affection determine his state of being, which was a horrible thing for a child to feel the need to feel. But either way, deep down inside, he wanted Gozaboro to show up any second now.

"You okay, Moki?" Seto asked him.

Mokuba forced a smile on his face. "Yeah. I know I'm just being silly. I'm sorry, Seto. I'm all better now."

"Good," Seto said. "Look, I'm sure Gozaboro is just running late."

"See, big brother, the thing is... I'm not sure if I'm more afraid of him changing his mind and not coming anymore, or of him actually coming after all?"

"I know he wasn't our first choice for a father, Mokuba. But we were his first choice for children."

"Do you think he's only interested in us because of our inheritance?"

"Gozaboro is a very wealthy man, Moki. Money is definitely something he isn't lacking."

"Then, could it be possible that someone wants to adopt us because they actually _like_ us?"

"Of course, Moki! Who wouldn't want to adopt you?"

A smile appeared on Mokuba's face that he wasn't going to try to hide. It was difficult being so young and having to grow up so quickly because of circumstance. Both of the brothers had had to toughen up and put their feelings on hold to survive the hard ways of the orphan world, and poor Mokuba had been less successful at this than Seto. However, unbeknownst to Mokuba, Seto had overheard Gozaboro reveal admiration for his promising mind and express a lack of interest for his brother's. But, of course, he wasn't going to let Mokuba find this out. He wasn't going to deny his brother the bliss of the potential promise.

"Who wouldn't want to adopt you, Mokuba?" Seto repeated.

"Can you imagine, big brother? Seto Kaiba and Mokuba Kaiba!"

"I like the sound of that."

"Come on, let's duel again," Mokuba said. He started to shuffle his cards once again when one of them slid off the deck and fell under the table.

Mokuba bent down to pick it up when he noticed a young girl about his brother's age who was walking past them kneeling down and beating him to it.

"I believe you dropped this," she said, handing him the card.

"Thank you," Mokuba said.

"What kind of a game is this?" she asked, looking a little confused at the card.

"It's called Duel Monsters," Mokuba said. "You wanna play?"

"I haven't seen you around here before," Seto interrupted. "Are you new?"

The girl looked at the eldest brother and he looked back at her. She was dressed in all purple and had many beautiful features, though they seemed to be hiding a lifetime of sufferings that had been lived in just the span of a couple of days. This was something Seto could relate to.

"Me and my siblings arrived here yesterday night," the girl explained. "At around 1 in the morning, I think. You were probably asleep."

"Oh, we were totally asleep by then," Mokuba said. "That's probably why we didn't see you."

Despite the mention of time, Mokuba didn't look up at the clock. He realized Gozaboro would simply get there when he got there and no sooner. He really seemed to be running rather late though...

"So..." Seto said, looking nervously at the girl, "you lost your parents recently, didn't you?"

He looked at her uncertainly, not sure if the question was inappropriate or would make her uncomfortable, but she looked calm enough - sad, yes, but calm nonetheless - and this was an orphanage after all... So, why else would she be there with them if it wasn't for that? If anything, he actually felt stupid for asking such an obvious question. He should have asked "_How_ did you lose your parents" but wait, that was the wrong question too. Most people probably wouldn't want to answer that, especially if it had just happened.

"Well," the girl said, clearing her throat, "my uncle was actually taking care of us because... Well, and he..."

"Yeah, I understand. I'm sorry." Seto realized he had made her uncomfortable and tried to change the subject immediately, even though he wasn't sure how to interpret her answer since he hadn't even let her finish. He gave her a comforting look instead.

"We're trying to see if maybe our aunt can get custody," the girl continued to explain, deciding that Seto had not actually meant to make her feel bad. "If it doesn't work out legally, I guess we'll be staying here for a while."

"It isn't so bad," Mokuba said. "You'll get used to it. But sorry about your loss.,."

"Why wouldn't your aunt be able to get custody?" Seto asked.

"She's not technically our real aunt. Like, she isn't mom and dad's sister or anything."

"I see. She's your uncle's wife or something?"

"You said you had siblings, right?" Mokuba interrupted.

"Yeah," said the girl. "A sister and a brother."

"Where are they?"

"Resting," the girl responded.

"You mean, sleeping?"

"No, resting. We've had some very tough last couple of days..."

"Why don't you sit down?" Seto asked. "This isn't the kind of thing to talk about standing up and, look at me, where are my manners? Hadn't even offered you a seat and-"

"Thanks. Don't worry, you're very kind." She took the seat next to Seto and the three of them sat in awkward silence for a few seconds. The girl starred at the ceiling and the table, then caught sight of the cards once again when Mokuba resumed the shuffling.

"You've never played Duel Monsters before?" Seto asked her.

"I haven't," she said. "How do you play?"

"It's easy!" Mokuba said. "You see, there are three types of cards. Monster Cards, Magic Cards, and Trap Cards. The game is basically a battle between your Monster Cards and your opponent's Monster Cards, but they can be strengthened by the Magic Cards."

"How do you win?" the girl asked. "And what are the Trap Cards for?"

"You and your opponent each start with 4,000 Life Points," Mokuba continued as Seto stared at the girl almost dumbfoundedly, "and you lose points every time the monsters battle and your's is the weaker one. The Trap Cards are to turn the tables on your opponent when he think he's winning."

"Sounds interesting," she said. She was trying to be interested, but Seto knew her uncle's death was still on her mind. He knew because that's what he had done when their parents had passed away. The girl was just trying to be strong, probably for her brother and sister, the same way he had always tried to be strong for Mokuba. Oh, Mokuba... Seto was happy that at least talking about Duel Monsters with the girl was making Mokuba forget about Gozaboro's delay. Where was he?

"This is a Monster Card," Mokuba said, showing the girl a card called The Magician of Faith.

"She's pretty," said the girl.

"She's an Effect Monster, but I'll get into that later. This is a Magic Card," he said as he showed her Polymerization, "and this one right here is a Trap Card." He showed her Seven Tools of the Bandit.

"I really like this one," said the girl, pointing at the Trap Card. "Tools interest me, but I really don't like bandits."

"Who does?" Mokuba said, smiling. "By the way, I'm Mokuba. This is my brother, Seto."

"Sorry for the late introductions," Seto said and held out his hand to her.

"That's quite alright," the girl said and shook Seto's hand. "Nice to meet you, Seto."

Seto tried to hide his blush.

"What's your name?" Mokuba asked.

"My name is-"

"Seto? Mokuba?" came the voice of one of the orphanage directors.

"Seto, they're calling us! They're calling us" said Mokuba. "That probably means he's here!"

"Who's here?" the girl said.

"We're getting adopted today!" Mokuba exclaimed.

"Oh..." said the girl.

"Give us a moment," Seto told her. "We'll be right back."

"Okay."

Seto grabbed Mokuba's hand and they headed to the front of the cafeteria where the orphanage director, a middle-aged woman named Patty Yamashita, was standing.

"There you are," Mrs. Yamashita said. "I would have walked over to you rather than yell out your names but I couldn't find you.

"Is Mr. Kaiba here?" Mokuba asked.

"Oh sweetheart, not yet," she said. "But why don't you go pick out today's movie from the Movie Room? Mr. Toc will go with you and he'll let you pick whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?"

"Whatever you want."

"Awesome!"

"Who's Mr. Toc," Seto asked.

"Faloun Toc is one of the new volunteers here," Mrs. Yamashita explained. "He just arrived this morning. Go on, Mokuba. You know where the Movie Room is. Mr. Toc will be waiting for you there."

Mokuba had been wanting to pick the movie ever since the first day they had started to let the kids pick out the films. He ran passed every single table, out of the cafeteria, and into the hallway, turning to the right where the Movie Room was located.

"Oh, careful tough! Mr. Toc is in a wheelchair!" But Mokuba was too far away to hear her.

"Okay, Mrs. Yamashita," said Seto, "Mokuba's gone. Now cut the crap. Tell me whatever it is I need to know that you didn't want my little brother to hear."

"Oh, Seto..." the woman sighed with woe, her eyes watery. "I- I don't know how to tell you this, hun..."

"What? What happened?"

"My poor little boy..."

_"Where's Gozaboro Kaiba?!"_

"Mr. Kaiba had a car accident on the way over here..."

Seto's jaw dropped.

"Gozaboro had...he had an accident...?"

Mrs. Yamashita nodded with a hand over her lips.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Seto, dear, he died!"

Seto was speechless.

_"What?"_

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so so sorry... But you had to know..."

"He... _he died_...?"

"Your little brother can't know-"

"And why did_ I_ have to know? Why couldn't you just lie to me and tell me he changed his mind and wasn't coming?!" Tears were rolling down Seto's face and his fists were ready to punch a wall and beak it.

"Seto, I-"

"I should have known this was too good to be true!"

"Sweetie, look-"

"I am going to go look for my brother!"

"Please don't tell little Mokuba-"

"Of course I won't tell him! I'm not an imbecile like you!"

"Seto!"

"I'm not going to tell a depressed little orphan holding onto to an inch of hope that what might have been his ONLY chance at a better future _DIED_ on his way over here!"

Mrs. Yamashita covered her mouth with her hands as silent tears rolled down her eyes too. She was sorry for Seto and Mokuba, but she did what she thought was right. She saw Seto storm out of the cafeteria and did what she thought was right then by not trying to stop him or chase after him. She had known him long enough to know that he was best left alone before she should attempt to comfort him.

"Excuse, Mrs. Yamashita?"

Mrs. Yamashita looked up at the girl in purple standing in front of her.

"Oh, yes... Hi, Violet..." she said, wiping her tears. "It is Violet, right?"

The girl nodded. "Pardon the question ma'am, but if I may ask, what happened to Seto and his little brother? I was waiting for them to return to the table when-"

"Oh, honey," Mrs. Yamashita said as she put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't get involved with issues that don't concern you. You and your brother and baby sister have gone through quite an ordeal these last couple of weeks. Way worse than anything Seto and Mokuba ever have experienced. So just go play with your cards and set your mind free, child. Set your mind free..."

"But-"

"And don't bother Seto. He needs to be alone right now."

Violet wasn't going to correct her and tell her that they were actually Seto's cards and not her's, or that she knew it wasn't polite, though still helpful depending the situation, to try to comfort someone who was crying.

"Can I go back to my dormitory?" she asked instead. "I want to see how my brother is doing."

"Catherine, the nurse, told me that Klaus was all better. But sure, darling, go ahead."

Violet didn't know if she should grab Seto and Mokuba's cards now that she was going back to her room, or if she should leave them there on the table in case they returned from wherever it was that they went before she got back with Klaus and their baby sister Sunny, who was in the nursery. She decided to leave them, as she was sure none of the kids would steal them. But right then, the cafeteria doors opened and Seto and Mokuba walked in with an older man in a wheelchair.

Seto's eyes were passionately red, he looked like he had been crying and was holding back the rest of the tears. Mokuba looked happy as he waved a movie above his head and was clearly unaware of whatever was troubling his brother. And the man, Mr. Faloun Toc, the new volunteer, looked happy too as he stared at Violet's eyes and she stared back at him. His name tag might have said, HI I'M MR. TOC, and his right foot might have been in a cast that completely shielded his uniquely tattooed ankle, but Violet knew Count Olaf, her beloved Uncle Monty's murderer, when she saw him.

Count Olaf, or Faloun Toc as I am now forced to call him, smiled menacingly at Violet from across the large room. Without warning, an aura of unprecedented peril filled the cafeteria like the ghost of some natural disaster and sent goosebumps all over Violet's body. She understood at once that her and her siblings, Seto and Mokuba, and none of the children at the orphanage were safe anymore.

Mr. Toc caressed Mokuba's long black hair without breaking eye contact with Violet and winked at her with a wink that could have meant anything as perverse as was possible. He tenderly grabbed Seto's arm the way an inappropriate grandfather or uncle would and Violet was quick to understand the message without Mr. Toc having the need to do what he did anyways. He raised a finger to his lips and mouthed a sinister _"shhh"_ to Violet as he continued to caress Mokuba's hair, rather threateningly and even more disturbingly this time.

Violet gulped in vulnerable fear and looked around the cafeteria at the innocent orphans, unaware of the danger surrounding them.

"Shhh," Mr. Toc said again. And tightened the grip on Seto's arm.


	2. Mokuba's Missing

"Terrible, terrible, terrible..." said Mr. Toc.

"This is the second tragedy that happens today!" Mrs. Yamashita muttered to herself with saddened eyes. "He's dead. He's most definitely dead."

"Don't say that, Patty! I called the ambulance, they should be here any second now," the nurse told Mrs. Yamashita.

"Faloun," Mrs. Yamashita said, "could you go and inform Pete of this most unfortunate event while I go make a quick phone call. Would that be too much trouble?"

"Don't worry, Patty," Mr. Toc said from his wheelchair. "I may be handicapped, but I am always body-abled to perform a service of good intention!"

"Thank you, Faloun. You're a saint."

Faloun Toc exited Mrs. Yamashita's office and went to look for Pete, the other co-director who ran the orphanage with Mrs. Yamashita, who was on yard duty watching over the children on the playground. Seto and Mokuba were fond of him; he had congratulated Seto when he had defeated Gozaboro Kaiba in their chess match and had let him keep the chess set in his room as a reward.

Mrs. Yamashita took out the address book and looked up a number in panic. Before picking up the phone and dialing, she turned to look at the nurse, "Katherine, go fetch Seto and his brother. I don't know where the hell they ran off to, but accident or not, the little brat has to own up for what he did! Murder is murder!"

"Ma'am, the child isn't dead!"

"But do you _honestly_ think he'll live after something like that?!"

"Also, ma'am... I don't suppose now is a good time to tell you this but a new family wants to schedule an appointment to take a look at the kids. Norma forgot to tell you. The Wheel—"

_"I DON'T CARE! GO LOOK FOR MOKUBA AND HIS BROTHER!"_

"Yes, ma'am!"

* * *

Back at the dormitories, Violet Baudelaire burst the door open to her room in quite the hurry. Her brother Klaus, startled, was laying awake on the bed reading a book about Egyptian pharaohs.

"Wow Violet, what happened?" he asked her, putting the book down. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Klaus," Violet told her brother, "Olaf is here!"

"What?"

"Yes, he's here! I saw him!"

"If this is some kind of joke—"

"Why would I joke about something like that? He's in disguise again!"

"He's still dressed as Stefano?"

"No, no. He's pretending to be some guy in a wheelchair named Faloun Toc who volunteers at orphanages."

"Does he know we're here?"

"Klaus, that's why he's here! He wants to kidnap us or adopt us, I don't know! He dropped the T.V. set on a little child just a few minutes ago!"

"He did what?!"

"It was a warning to me! To show me he's capable of hurting any of the other kids here if we attempt to run away. And what's worse is that he's blaming it all on Seto's little brother."

"Who's Seto?"

"He's a boy that I met, he's really nice. But now his younger brother Mokuba is afraid of getting punished for it and ran off to hide somewhere. Seto is looking for him."

"How's the kid who was crushed by the T.V.?"

"Nobody knows. The ambulance was on the way when I left the cafeteria. He's really badly injured and he lost a lot of blood, but at least he's still breathing."

Violet actually had wanted to say, "It's unlikely he'll make it" because, sadly, that was the truth. But she decided not to draw in any negative vibes from the universe. Her mother had always said if you thought positively, even if the result was negative, you still had the satisfaction of knowing you didn't give up and drew in the bad energy. Besides, she felt kind of responsible because Olaf had merely hurt the child to send out a message to her, and the message was very clear.

"So what do we do, Violet? Do we run away? We have to go get Sunny and get out of here!"

"No! If we try to leave, he'll hurt another child!"

"But we can't stay here either!"

"And we have to help Seto and Mokuba too. I have to let Mrs. Yamashita know it wasn't Mokuba."

"Did anybody else see it happen?"

"No! That's the problem! Nobody was paying attention, Klaus. Nobody seemed particularly interested in The Littlest Elf, Mokuba's movie selection. Everyone was so engrossed in their own business and Mokuba was putting in the tape when Olaf swiftly stood up from his phony wheelchair in the blink of an eye, and pushed the T.V. off the cart where it fell on the little boy who walking to throw away his trash. He planned it so perfectly! He had even called the boy over and had told him to throw away the tray just seconds before."

"That's horrible!"

"And then he started screaming, 'Oh Mokuba, what did you do?' while looking at me, and called Mrs. Yamashita over."

"We have to let Mrs. Yamashita know who Mr. Toc really is."

"But how do we do that? None of the adults are going to believe us if we tell them Mr. Toc isn't actually handicapped."

"Mr. Poe warned Mrs. Yamashita about Count Olaf when he dropped us off yesterday night. She knows what he looks like, she has a picture. Is there any way we can show his tattoo or unibrow?"

"He isn't hiding his unibrow this time, but he has a cast on his right foot. There is no way Mrs. Yamashita will make him take it off just to—"

Violet and Klaus looked at each other as the invading sound of someone knocking, or rather _pounding_, on the door interrupted their conversation and permeated freely through the walls of the dormitory like a murderous echo.

_Knock, knock._

Klaus gulped and tried not to make much noise.

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

Was it Mrs. Yamashita? Was it "Mr. Toc"?

"Who...who is it...?" Violet asked with a shaky voice while she looked around the room for something to defend herself with in case it was Mr. Toc.

"I'm looking for my little brother," came a voice from the other side. "He's hiding somewhere. Is there any chance he's in there?"

"Klaus, that's Seto!" Violet told her brother as she ran towards the door to let Seto in.

"Oh, Violet. It's you," said Seto with a look of partial relief.

"Seto," said Violet, gesturing him to come in.

"Mokuba didn't do—"

"Don't worry, I know. I saw it."

"You saw it? Then you have to go tell Mrs. Yamashita! She's convinced my little brother did it on purpose, but I can assure you it was just an accident! Mokuba wouldn't—"

"No, Seto. Count — I mean, Mr. Toc — is the one who dropped the T.V. on the little kid."

"Mr. Toc? The old man in the wheelchair who can barely see?"

"Who can barely see?" Violet repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah," said Seto, coming in and closing the door behind him. "He told us his eyesight wasn't too good and that's why he was holding onto me—"

"No, no, Seto. That is _not_ why he was holding onto you..." Violet told him a little uncomfortably.

"What do you mean?" Seto asked, afraid of where the conversation was going.

Was Seto going to hate her now once he realized their arrival at the orphanage was what had lured Olaf in? That, indirectly, it could be argued that everything that was happening now was their fault?

Violet just looked at Seto, and Seto looked back at her.

"Mr. Toc is really a man named Count Olaf," Klaus spoke up from the bed. "He saw my sister—"

"He saw me in the cafeteria," Violet continued, "and he saw that I had seen him too, so he grabbed you as a way of letting me know that if I screamed out his name right then and there, he would hurt you and Mokuba."

Seto stared at Violet and Klaus with a unique kind of stare, as if deciding whether to believe them or not or perhaps judging them. In the three and a half years that he and Mokuba had been at the orphanage ever since the dreadful day their parents died in a terrible fire, he had never truly made friends with any of the other children there. In fact, he avoided them like the plague, or like how a pauper avoids a princess in fear his request at a friendship is turned down. Although in Seto's case, it was technically the opposite. But there was something about Violet and Klaus that let Seto know they were telling the truth. Perhaps it was the disturbing familiarity of pain and hurt visible in their eyes that he could relate to.

"What's the matter?" Klaus asked Seto as he fixed his glasses. "Don't you believe us?"

"I believe you," said Seto. "It's just not flattering to know I was in danger without even knowing it at the time. I suppose that's why he gripped me so hard."

"That man is a monster," said Violet.

"What's he want with you two, though?"

"We can explain it all to you later, Seto," said Violet, "but right now finding your brother is priority. Mokuba is in terrible danger if Mr. Toc catches him."

"Or if Mrs. Yamashita finds him first," Seto said. "Let's go."

"We should look in the cafeteria," said Klaus.

"No, we shouldn't," said Seto. "Mokuba wouldn't hide there and besides, your sister and I were just there and we didn't see him."

"What if we split up?" Violet suggested.

"Is splitting up really a good idea if Count Olaf is lurking by?" Klaus asked.

"It is if we want to find my brother as soon as possible."

The middle Baudelaire was taken aback by the combination of assertiveness and lack of friendliness in Seto's cold and stern voice, probably because he assumed this mutual threat made them friends by default now and Seto seemed anything but friendly.

"I can go look in the playground," Violet suggested, "Klaus, why don't you go to the kitchen, bathrooms, and the other dormitories. And maybe Seto can look upstairs?"

"Sounds good to me," said Seto.

He opened the door when suddenly—

_"SETO!"_ came the angry voice of Patty Yamashita from the hallway as Seto and the two Baudelaire siblings where in the process of splitting up and going their separate ways.

"For the love of Ra..."

"Stop right there, you three!"

The children did as they were told.

"I don't know where he is," Seto said.

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask you!" Mrs. Yamashita said. "Now, where is your brother Mokuba?!"

"Didn't you hear me? I just told you I don't know where he is!" Seto responded fiercely at her with a command in his voice that made Violet and Klaus understand he wasn't the kind of person who took nonsense from adults just because they were adults.

"You told him, didn't you?"

"Told him what?"

"I asked you not to tell him!"

"What are you talking about? Gozaboro Kaiba's accident?"

"Yes! Of course I'm talking about Gozoboro Kaiba's accident _and death!_"

"What?" asked Violet and Klaus in unison.

"I didn't tell him," Seto answered back.

"Yes you did!" cried Mrs. Yamashita. "And in a moment of madness and self-proclaimed revenge, your brother dropped that television set on the little boy!"

"What?!" cried Seto.

"He figured if you and him couldn't have an adoptive father, the other parents wouldn't be able to adopt the other orphans either so he tried to kill one of them!"

Seto and the Baudelaires looked at Mrs. Yamashita with a combination of anger, frustration, and disgust. None of them could believe the words that were coming out of the woman's mouth. The very same woman who had seemed so kind and understanding and used words like "sweetheart" and "hun."

Finally, after a long moment of silence and intense exchange of loathing stares, Seto said, "You're a stupider bitch that I thought, Patty."

_"Excuse me?!"_

"You're an absolute moronic idiot if you actually believe, even for one goddamn second, that my brother would injure another kid here!"

"I'm an adult! I know how children work! I run this orphanage! Plus, Mr. Toc agrees with my theory!"

"Mrs. Yamashita!" Violet cried. "You don't understand! Mr. Toc is actually a man called—"

"What does Mr. Toc have to do with anything?!"

"He dropped the T.V. on the child!" cried Klaus.

"That's preposterous!" cried Mrs. Yamashita. "Mr. Toc is harmless! Besides, he is in a wheelchair. There's no way he could have stood up to reach the T.V.!"

"Oh, but my little brother could?!"

"Well, yes! Mr. Toc told me so!"

"Wow. You are _truly_ an imbecile," said Seto.

"That's it! I've had it with you, young man! You're hurting my feelings!"

"Mrs. Yamashita, Mr. Toc is actually Count Olaf!" cried Violet. "Do you remember Mr. Poe was telling you about him yesterday night when he dropped us off?"

"No, of course I don't remember! It was like 1 in the morning!" exclaimed Mrs. Yamashita. "How am I supposed to remember anything that happens at 1 in the morning? I don't even remember your name, Violet!"

Seto rolled his eyes at Mrs. Yamashita's remarkable stupidity and, without warning, grabbed Violet by the arm and started running at full speed. "Come on!" he said. "We gotta find my brother!"

"Wait for me!" Klaus said and chased after them.

"COME BACK HERE, YOU BRATS!" Mrs. Yamashita yelled as she ran after them. "SECURITY! SECURITY!"

"Klaus! Go to the nursery and grab Sunny! I'll help Seto look for his brother!"

"Are we running away?!"

"Just do it, Klaus!"

"SECURITY!"

The three orphans exited the long hallway that lead to the dormitories, with Mrs. Yamashita not too far behind them. Klaus made a run for the right side of the orphanage, where the nursery was located and the babies and toddlers were being taken care of. Seto and Violet entered the cafeteria once again, since that was the only way to make it back out into the playground. They could see the broken television laying on the ground where it had crushed the little boy.

"Door's over there," Seto told Violet, pointing at the door that lead to the playground where a lot of the children where still playing. "Let's try not to draw too much attention to ourselves."

"Got it," said Violet.

"SECURITY!" came the annoying voice of Mrs. Yamashita from the hallway.

"Run!" Seto yelled at Violet.

They ran out of the cafeteria as fast as their feet could take them, which actually wasn't too bad of a plan since children ran out of the cafeteria all the time to go play on the playground and they had in fact blended in with a crowd of girls who were doing precisely that at the moment.

"Mokuba?!" Seto called out. "Mokuba!"

"I think we're safe," Violet told Seto. "Mrs. Yamashita is looking for us in the bathrooms."

"Mokuba!" cried Seto. "Where are you?!"

"Let's look around, Seto. I'll go check the swings and monkey bars."

"Seto!" cried a voice from behind them and Seto and Violet turned around almost instantly.

It was a boy clearly older than Seto and Violet. He was probably about sixteen or so and had long hair as black as a raven at night.

"Garrett?" Seto asked, trying to remember the boy's name. He had seen him around a lot during his stay at the orphanage, but like Seto himself, the boy was usually pretty quiet and didn't interact much with other kids. "Or is it Grey? I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

"Grayson, actually. Richard Grayson," said the boy. "But you can call me Dick. I know where your brother is."

"PATTY!" cried yet another voice behind Seto, Violet, and Dick Grayson. It was Pete, the other co-director, who was standing next to a man in a wheelchair who the three orphans knew was none other than Mr. Toc. Pete was speaking on his cell phone, "PATTY! I FOUND THEM! SETO AND THE BAUDELAIRE GIRL ARE ON THE PLAYGROUND!"


End file.
